Setting the Pace

The Museums, Libraries and Archives Partnership launched its vision for the London Olympiad in July 2007. The document (a copy is available below) sets out how the cultural sector will engage young people, celebrate diversity and help deliver the best ever Games, sustaining a legacy for people across England.

The report shows how the Partnership will champion the development of collections, audiences, staff and volunteers so that the 2012 Games can be part of the process of transforming the sector through demonstrating the inspiration, learning and creativity that museums, libraries and archives offer.

The Partnership is proposing five projects as part of an unrivalled Cultural Olympiad:

• International Exhibition Programme - bringing together international curators and local communities to reinterpret existing collections,
• People's Record - a community archive project,
• The Record - the official archive of the 2012 Olympiad,
• Literature and Storytelling - a programme to inspire young people that will generate new works, new readers and new collections,
• Information Hubs - providing information to non-accredited overseas journalists who have come to Britain to cover the Olympics and the activities outside the sporting arena.

Mark Wood, chair of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council said: "We believe these initiatives show how, together, our ten organisations deliver leadership for our sector and put museums, libraries and archives at the heart of national, regional and local life."

Each MLA region will develop a strategy based on the Setting the Pace vision. To inform the progress and development of the East Midlands' strategy, MLA East Midlands commissioned a region-wide consultation undertaken in November 2007, the results of which were first presented at the MLA East Midlands' AGM on 14 December 2007.

A copy of Setting the Pace can be downloaded here:
Setting the Pace July 2007 (2192 kb)